New Orleans Hornets seeking to draft an immediate contributor

In preparation for tonight's NBA draft, Hornets Coach Byron Scott and General Manager Jeff Bower put in long hours and met daily for three weeks to come up with a consensus for their wish list of prospects they think could be available when they select at No. 21 in the first round.

With Scott in the final year of his contract and Bower responsible for reshaping the roster after the Hornets sputtered out of the playoffs in the first round this past season, both admit they cannot miss on selecting a player that can contribute immediately.

They are on the hunt for an NBA-ready power forward, point guard or combo guard who can improve their inconsistent bench.

"We both understand how important this is to make sure we do get it right, " Scott said. "We're trying to do all our homework on the guys that we are looking at, and we're being very diligent to make sure we do pick the guy that we do feel can come in and produce.

"I think we all understand that we have a couple of needs. We still need a power forward that can spell David (West). We need a backup point that keeps the pace that we really want to keep up when Chris (Paul) is not in the game. Those are probably the two biggest areas."

Bower has not ruled out the possibility of trying to move up in the draft if the team believes it cannot get its desired player at 21. The Hornets are interested in North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, but he is expected to be taken before the Hornets select. Several mock drafts have Hansbrough going at No. 20 to the Utah Jazz.

"We've got some players in our range that we feel very confident about their abilities that fit with our team, " Bower said. "We don't feel like we have to go any one direction. We got flexibility at a player of many different types whether that's a guard or a front-line player. So we've looked at it with that approach."

Maynor is a quick, hard-charging playmaker who averaged 22.6 points and 6.2 assists as a senior. But Scott said Maynor did not have a good workout at the Alario Center on June 8, but remains under consideration.

"I watched a bunch of tapes of him playing in college -- he's a very good point guard, " Scott said. "We don't base all of our projections on just the workout. He is one of those guys on our radar."

That radar includes Thornton, whom Scott continues to rave about three weeks after putting him through a workout.

Though Thornton's draft stock continues to rise, he could be available when the Hornets select. But Scott's only concern is Thornton's athleticism on the defensive end.

"The two guard and three (small forward) is probably the toughest positions to guard, " Scott said.

Ellington, a good perimeter shooter who helped the Tar Heels win the 2009 national championship, is expected to be available when the Hornets pick.

Since June 5, the Hornets have worked out 22 draft prospects. Bower and Brian Hagen, the Hornets' director of scouting, also went to Minnesota to evaluate prospects during group workout sessions.

"We pretty much got a good handle on the guys we thought would fall between that 15 to 25 range, " Scott said. "We've got a chance to pretty much see everybody. It might have been one or two guys that the agent wouldn't allow to work out for us because they thought they would go higher."

Usually after the first 14 picks, the probability of landing a can't-miss prospect goes down considerably. Of the final 10 picks in the 2008 draft, only Orlando's Courtney Lee played in more than 75 games, averaging 25.2 minutes and more than eight points per game. He was the 22nd overall pick.

Since 2005, the Hornets' only draft pick to emerge quickly and become a productive rookie starter is Paul, who was the fourth overall pick.

Forward Julian Wright, whom the Hornets selected at No. 13 in the 2007 draft, struggled early in his rookie season but by the playoffs he had earned a spot in the rotation. But last season, he struggled to be consistent.

"For a player selected at 21, I think we have to be realistic, " Bower said. "We need to have a clear understanding of what his strengths are as an individual player. I think one of the key ingredients for a player to be successful early in his career is team need. That has a huge impact on whether a player receives a lot of time.

"We have a need in the backcourt for more depth, and I think our front line has a need for depth."